Accessibility Statement

Last updated: March 2026

This statement applies to www.seren.institute, operated by Seren Institute, an arts and language institute based in Ceredigion, Wales.

We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. We aim to exceed the minimum accessibility requirements and have targetted full conformance with WCAG 2.2 Level AAA — the highest level published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Legal framework

Accessibility of digital services in the UK is governed by:

• The Equality Act 2010, which requires organisations to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people are not placed at a substantial disadvantage when accessing services — including digital services.
• The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018, which require public sector websites to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA and publish an accessibility statement. Although Seren Institute is not a public sector body, we voluntarily adopt these standards as a benchmark of good practice.
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, the current international technical standard, which we use as our target.

Compliance status

This website is partially conformant with WCAG 2.2 Level AA. Partial conformance means that some content does not fully conform to the accessibility standard. The non-conformances and known limitations are listed below.

We have carried out a comprehensive code-level audit against all WCAG 2.2 success criteria at Levels A, AA, and AAA. The majority of criteria are met. The exceptions are documented in full below.

Non-conformances — Level AA

The following Level AA success criteria are not fully met:

1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (AA)

The decorative border colour (#ccd5e3) used on cards and section boundaries achieves approximately 1.35:1 contrast against the page background (#fff5e8), below the 3:1 minimum required for UI component boundaries. While box-shadow provides additional visual separation, the border colour itself does not meet the criterion.

Plan: Darken the border colour to #9aabbd or above to achieve the required 3:1 ratio. Target: next visual design review, Q2 2026.

Known limitations — Level AAA

The following Level AAA success criteria are not fully met. Level AAA conformance across an entire site is not required by law; these are documented for transparency.

1.4.6 Contrast (Enhanced) — 7:1 (AAA)

Three colour combinations fall below the 7:1 enhanced contrast ratio:

• Footer legal text (approximately 5.3:1) — the small-print copyright and legal link text in the footer uses a lower-opacity colour.
• Error page heading in red (#b91c1c, approximately 5.9:1).
• "Live" event badge (#0f5d56 on #d6f4f1, approximately 7.0:1 — borderline).

All three pass the Level AA minimum of 4.5:1.

Plan: Adjust each value to achieve 7:1 in a forthcoming CSS update.

2.4.13 Focus Appearance (AAA)

The focus indicator (3px blue outline, #1a6bbf) meets the minimum area and thickness requirements at most locations, but achieves only approximately 2.0:1 contrast on the dark-green call-to-action banner (#2d4226), below the 3:1 minimum required for focus indicators under this criterion.

Plan: Override :focus-visible on the CTA banner to use a white or light-blue outline. Target: Q2 2026.

2.5.5 Target Size (Enhanced — 44×44px) (AAA)

Interactive controls throughout the site (navigation, buttons, language switcher, footer links) meet or exceed the 44×44 CSS pixel minimum. However, inline hyperlinks within markdown-rendered body text do not have an enforced minimum tap-target size and may be smaller than 44×44px on touch devices.

WCAG 2.2 contains an explicit exception for inline text links where resizing would change the line size or position of text. We consider this exception applicable; however, we plan to add minimum height padding to inline links where feasible.

Disproportionate burden

We have not invoked the disproportionate burden exemption for any part of this website.

Content not within this statement's scope

Third-party embedded content

Some pages embed third-party tools: a contact form (Google Forms), a booking widget (TidyCal), and course registration forms. These are provided by external services and their internal accessibility implementation is beyond our direct control. Specifically:

• Keyboard focus in embedded iframes: The Google Forms and TidyCal widgets loaded inside <iframe> elements may contain keyboard focus traps in certain browser or assistive technology combinations. Users may press Escape to exit a trapped iframe in most browsers.
• Screen reader experience within third-party widgets may vary depending on the assistive technology and browser combination.

Users who experience difficulty with any embedded form can contact us directly using the details below, and we will offer an alternative means of completing the action.

Linked PDFs and documents

This website does not currently publish PDFs or downloadable documents. If this changes, accessibility of those documents will be assessed at that time.

What we do to make this website accessible

All pages on this website use:

• Valid, semantic HTML5 with landmark regions (<header>, <nav>, <main>, <footer>, <article>)
• Logical heading hierarchy (H1 – H3, with no skipped levels)
• aria-label and aria-labelledby on all interactive and sectioned regions
• Skip-to-content links that appear on keyboard focus
• Breadcrumb navigation with aria-label="Breadcrumb" and aria-current="page"
• Visible, clearly contrasting :focus-visible outlines on all interactive elements
• hreflang alternate links for full trilingual support (English, Welsh, Spanish)
• Structured data (JSON-LD) for machine-readable page identification
• lang attribute on the <html> element, set correctly per language version
• prefers-reduced-motion media query — all animations and transitions are disabled when the user has requested reduced motion
• forced-colors: active media query — layout and controls are tested in Windows High Contrast Mode
• No auto-playing media, no flashing content, no time limits
• Minimum touch target sizes of 44×44 CSS pixels for all navigation, button, and icon link elements
• Rate-limited, CSRF-protected forms to maintain security without penalising assistive technology users

Assistive technologies tested against

This website has been reviewed for compatibility with:

• Screen readers: NVDA + Firefox (Windows), VoiceOver + Safari (macOS / iOS)
• Keyboard-only navigation: tested in Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari
• Windows High Contrast Mode (Forced Colors)
• Browser zoom: tested at 200% and 400% zoom
• Text spacing overrides: line height, letter spacing, word spacing, paragraph spacing modified beyond WCAG thresholds

Requesting content in an alternative format

If you need information on this website in a different format — for example, plain text, large print, audio or a different language — contact us:

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone / WhatsApp: +44 7930 665154

We will consider your request and aim to respond within 5 working days.

Reporting an accessibility problem

We are always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problem not listed on this page, or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, contact us:

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone / WhatsApp: +44 7930 665154

We aim to acknowledge all accessibility reports within 2 working days and respond fully within 5 working days.

Enforcement procedure

If you contact us with an accessibility complaint and are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS):

• Website: equalityadvisoryservice.com
• Phone: 0808 800 0082
• Textphone: 0808 800 0084

The EASS provides free, independent advice and support on discrimination and human rights issues, including digital accessibility under the Equality Act 2010.

Technical specification

This website is built with ASP.NET Core (.NET 10) using server-side Razor Pages. It relies on the following technologies for accessibility:

• HTML5
• CSS3 (including custom properties, Grid and Flexbox layouts)
• JavaScript (minimal, for cookie consent banner and Google Analytics bootstrap only)
• WAI-ARIA (landmark roles, aria-label, aria-labelledby, aria-current, aria-expanded, aria-hidden)

No JavaScript frameworks are used. All primary content is server-rendered and accessible without JavaScript enabled.

Audit and review history

We review this statement at minimum annually and following any significant change to the website. Our next scheduled review is February 2027.

Preparation of this statement

This statement was prepared in February 2026. It was last reviewed and updated in March 2026.

Contact us: [email protected] | +44 7930 665154